18* 



Class _ 
Book__ 



COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT 



Copyrighted, by the Author, Nov. 



PRESS OF ISAAC FRIED ENWALD CO.> 

BALTIMORE. , < 



TO THE 

WOMEN'S LITERARY CLUB OF BALTIMORE, 

IN THE HOPE THAT THE SAME CONTACT WHICH HAS STRUCK FORTH 
THESE FEW SPARKS, MAY KINDLE, AS THE DAYS GO ON, A 
BEACON-FIRE OF ENTHUSIASM, AND SO PROCURE THE 
UPLIFTING OF OUR WORK AS WOMEN, TO THE 
HIGHEST AND BEST NICHE IN THE TEMPLE 
OF TRUTH ETERNAL, THESE PAPERS 
ARE INSCRIBED BY 

" THE DOMINIE'S DAUGHTER." 

November, 1891. 



FIRST PAPER. 



INFLUENCE OF WOMEN ON COLONIZATION. 

The beginnings of the colonization of our shores, the causes 
which led to them, the varied ways of their fulfilment, and 
too often their tragic endings, form a theme so fascinating 
that one might well be pardoned if, like the Pilgrim of old, 
the attractions of the portal should so enchain him that his 
days might be ended in its contemplation, rather than in that 
of the inner shrine. 

In the vast aggregation which spreads out before the 
student, it seems well to select two threads from out of the 
warp and woof of Colonization, and along them to trace the 
influence of women. Those commonly chosen in historical 
research have been Spanish and English beginnings ; and 
surely no brighter ray has ever been thrown upon these 
shores than the coruscations from the casket of Isabella, 
whose womanly intuitions stood her in good stead when she 
cheered the heart of her irresolute consort and exchanged 
her jewels for a continent. The contest, however, for this 
goodly heritage was more hotly made, more thoroughly 
prolonged, and, indeed, only ended between France and 
England with the fall of Quebec in 1759. While to Spain 
undoubtedly belonged the first substantial right of discovery 
— a claim respected and allowed in all the earlier English 
settlements — while John and Sebastian Cabot were sent out 
by Henry VII. a year before Columbus made his second 
voyage, France, availing herself of the enterprise and en- 
durance of Verrazzani, was more tenacious in her grasp, and 
while from her internal condition she could pursue no elabo- 



6 



rate plan of conquest, she attained a steadfast footing upon 
the territory which became "Nova" in turn to each — as 
nation after nation filed past in the march of colonization. 

Although the bleak shores of Labrador and Newfoundland 
had little to attract the hardiest adventurer, the fishermen of 
Normandy and Brittany lost no time in settling along the 
northeastern coast of the terra incognita. Verrazzani, in 
the service of Francis L, had in 1524 reconnoitred several of 
the natural harbors, now our finest seaports, and his log con- 
tains the earliest reliable information extant relating to the 
coast of the present United States ; and the wildest dream of 
the romance-maker has never exceeded the relation of the 
first white woman — a daughter of la belle France — who 
inhabited for any length of time the shores of North America. 

In 1542 the Sieur de Roberval, intrepid successor of Ver- 
razzani and Cartier, in his voyage of discovery and intent of 
colonization steered to the northward to the Straits of Belle 
Isle and the Isle of Demons — so called from the traditions 
of the Indians, confirmed by the French voyageurs, of its 
possession by fiends from the nether world. His crew seems 
to have been an extraordinary one, embracing as it did not 
only nobles and adventurers, but women as well. These 
were high-born dames, and among them sailed Marguerite, 
niece of the Viceroy. In the ship was a young gentleman of 
France who had embarked for love of her. This love was 
only too well requited, and the stern Viceroy, so Parkman 
tells us, "scandalized and enraged at a passion which scorned 
concealment and set shame at defiance, cast anchor by the 
haunted island, landed his indiscreet relative with her old 
Norman nurse and — left her ! " Her lover threw himself into 
the surf and gained the shore. The ship vanished. The 
demon lords of the island soon asserted their supremacy, 
and in the form of beasts and other shapes unutterably 
hideous, howling in baffled fury, tore at the branches of the 
sylvan dwelling ; but repentance having come to the young 



7 



pair, a celestial hand ever interposed and there was a view- 
less barrier they might not pass. The fiends grew frantic, 
but all in vain. Marguerite stood undaunted amid all these 
horrors, but her lover, dismayed and heart-broken, sickened 
and died ; her child soon followed, the old nurse was laid to 
rest in the unhallowed soil, and Marguerite was left alone. 
Neither her reason nor her courage failed. When the assail- 
ants came too near she shot at them with her arquebus ; 
they defied her with hellish mirth. Thenceforth she trusted 
in Heaven alone. The bears proving more substantial foes, 
she killed three — " all as white," says the old chronicler, " as 
an egg." It was two years and five months from her landing 
when, far out at sea, the crew of a small fishing craft saw 
smoke curling upward from the haunted shore. They warily 
drew near and descried a female figure in wild attire signal- 
ing to them. Thus was Marguerite rescued and restored to 
her beloved France, where Thevet met her and heard the 
tale of wonder from her own lips. 

Such brave navigators and adventurers as those already 
named, and many others, with their actual occupation of the 
soil, gave to France a priority of claim which justified the 
bestowal by her monarch, upon Madame Antoinette de Pons, 
Marquise de Guercheville, of an original letter of possession 
for the whole of North America from the St. Lawrence to 
Florida. Her expedition set sail from Dieppe on the 26th 
of January, 161 1, and with no worse adventure than the 
encountering of icebergs " larger than the Church of Notre 
Dame," on the day of Pentecost anchored before Port Royal, 
now Annapolis, Nova Scotia. Here her arms, with the cross 
and the lilies of France, were planted by her people, con- 
ducted by two Jesuit priests, Pere Biard and Pere Masse. 

Thus our own " Land of Mary " was for a time in tenure 
of a woman, and that woman so distinguished for her piety 
and virtue, in a court and age when such graces were most 
rare, that she was presented to Marie de Medici by Henry of 



8 



Navarre with the statement : " Madame, Je vous donne pour 
Dame d'honneur, une veritable femme d'honneur." The 
history of her settlement is so interesting that it deserves a 
more extended mention than time now permits. Suffice it 
to say that, owing to disagreement between the Jesuit fathers 
and Protestant officials — a foreshadowing in some degree of 
the affairs of the Maryland foundation — Madame la Marquise 
was forced to send La Saussaye from Honfleur to conduct 
her colony to an island which Champlain had endowed with 
the name, so suggestive to our modern ears of days of 
delight, Mount Desert, but which her colonists, ignorant of 
their whereabouts, renamed St. Sauveur, and where Captain 
Argall, under the marine of the Virginia Company, in which 
Mr. George Calvert had become a grantee, brought terror 
and destruction entire upon Madame de Guercheville's emi- 
grants and plans. 

In or about 1604 Mr. George Calvert had married Anne 



Mynne, and might have gone to Venice in 16 14 as English 



ambassador, thereby diverting his energies from these parts. 



He is, however, chronicled as " not likely to affect such a 
journey, being reasonably well settled at home, having a wife 
and many children, which would be no easy carriage so far 
in this case, at least, the ancient but ungallant classification of 
such treasures as " impedimenta" proving a blessing in dis- 
guise. The women of the day, mothers and wives of the 
future colony, were not exempt from gossip and scandal 
and the spirit of intrigue which pervaded the court atmos- 
phere. Indeed, the appointment of Mr. Calvert as secretary 
was affected in no light degree by the domestic infelicities of 
his predecessor in office, Sir Thomas Lake. Nothing in the 
annals of the century was more remarkable than this cause 
celebre, between two noble dames, in which poison, witch- 
craft, and attempt at murder were among the leading accu- 
sations. This trial, involving as it did a large circle of mas- 
culine relatives, to say nothing of political and religious 




9 



complications, had so moved James I. to wrath that in a Star- 
Chamber discourse he adjures all secretaries "to beware of 
trusting their wives with state secrets," using the highly 
orthodox but most uncomplimentary simile with regard to 
the family connection of the retiring secretary, that Lake 
was Adam, Lady Lake, Eve, while to Lady Loos, their 
daughter, was allotted the unenviable position of the Serpent. 
Jacobus Rex seemed to stake much upon the examination 
of Mr. Calvert with regard to the virtues of his spouse, and 
must have been relieved at the domestic picture painted in 
few words by the sturdy courtier from Yorkshire : " She is a 
model wife, Sire. She hath brought me ten children, and I 
assure your Majesty she is not a wife with a witness." 

Under the steadfast hope and expectation that the North- 
west Passage would prove a speedily successful accomplish- 
ment, Sir George Calvert obtained a patent for Newfound- 
land. Owing to the severity of the weather, sickness among 
his people and the depredations of French cruisers, who con- 
tinually harassed him and disputed the possession of the 
coast, he did not long remain on these hyperborean shores. 
The Avalon grant having been given in 1623, at which time 
he was unable to leave court to visit his possessions in per- 
son, and his first acquaintance with the fickle climate of 
Ferryland beginning not earlier than 1626 or '27, his depar- 
ture for sunnier Virginia and Carolana occurring in 1629. 
He came back to England to secure his charter for Cres- 
centia ; but again a woman's influence moved the piece upon 
the board, and the new province, first Mariana, and then as 
we know it to-day, was made Terra Marie. So loyally was 
this baptism received that women are living among us to-day 
called for their ancestresses, who, not contented with the title 
of the colony, named their girls Henrietta Maria for the fas- 
cinating Queen. Before, however, the charter for Calvert's 
new dominion had passed the Great Seal, the Baron of Balti- 
more had set sail upon his longest journey. His son reigned 



10 



in his stead, and no name is more familiar to the ear of a 
daughter of Maryland than that of the fair woman whom 
Cecil Calvert took to wife, greeting us as it does in our con- 
tact with the banks of the Severn in the classic precincts of 
our Agora — Anne of Arundel. 

Meanwhile the English colonization had been progressing 
under the several Virginia Companies, and among long lists 
of patrons the names of some of England's fairest roses 
are enrolled : 

Mary, Countess of Shrewsbury.*^. 

Elizabeth, Countess of Derby, ancestress of that heroic 
Charlotte who so well defended her own castle. 
Margaret, Countess of Cumberland. 
Lucy, Countess of Bedford 
Mary, Countess of Pembroke. 
Lady Elizabeth Grail. 
Elinor Lady Carre, and others. 




WOMEN IN THE COLONY OF MARYLAND, 

1634 TO 1685. 

In the early plantation of Maryland there was no such pro- 
vision as we find for Virginia, when in the autumn of 162 1 
the " Warwick and Tiger " sailed from Gravesend, England, 
with supplies and thirty-eight young women, " selected with 
care," as wives for Virginia planters. These had but a nar- 
row escape from a company of Turks, by whom they were 
actually captured, but were rescued by a friendly vessel. 
Many of the women, however, who came out as servants into 
the Maryland settlement from 1634 to 1670, married well 
and became persons of wealth and distinction in the colony 
— as " Helenor Stephenson, who came out from England 
with Sir Edmund Plowden as his servant, was lawfully joyned 
in Matrimony with Mr. William Brainthwaite of St. Maries." 
He was a kinsman of Lord Baltimore, and held commission 
as " Commander of Kent," " Commander of St. Maries," and 
other important positions ; and Anne Bolton, of St. Martin 
in the Fields, who was sold to Mr. Francis Brooke (a bur- 
gess of St. Mary's in the Assembly of 1650) for his wife. 
These servants — sold out of their country frequently for 
political reasons, and more often innocent country girls 
kidnapped by men who made this their nefarious profession 
— if under twelve, were bound for seven years ; if over 
twelve, only four years were required. Upon the release 
of a " mayd," she was to receive " one new petty coat & 
wast- coat, one new smock, one pair new shoes, one pair new 



12 



stockings, and the cloathes formerly belonging to the ser- 
vant," and if these seem but a meagre showing for a ward- 
robe, we must remember with how little our predecessors, 
even in the court circles of the colony, were content, com- 
pared to the modern dame, who can trade at Liberty's in 
London or Redfern's in New York, to say nothing of our 
own importers, while an abstract from u a Rate of goods " 
allowed to a colonial woman on May 19, 1647, by Gover- 
nor and Council, may give some idea of what they had to 
pay for what they got, when they did go shopping on 
shipboard: "Item, Browne Hollande att 01 8 J shillings per 
yard, Dutch shoes att 30 shillings per paire," and so on, 
The indenture between Thomas Greene and Hannah Mat- 
thews in 1647 calls for more substantial requital for her 
service, as it names "fifty akers of land and one year's pro- 
vision, according to the custom of the country. She may, 
however, be acquitted of all obligacon if she pay or cause to 
be payd to Thomas Greene one Thousand weight of good 
merchantable leafe Tobacco and Caske and three barrels of 
goode corne \ but, she must not dispose of herselfe in mar- 
ryadge without consent of Thomas Greene." 

The dark shadows of the Middle Ages were still resting 
upon the world, and in two of the early voyages from the 
mother-country there are entries of executions for witchcraft. 
In 1654 the " Charity," John Bosworth, master, before they 
reached the Chesapeake, had been exposed to tempests, not, 
in the opinion of the crew, " on account of the violence of the 
ship or atmosphere, but occasioned by the malevolence of 
witches." " Forthwith they seize a little old woman sus- 
pected of sorcery. Guilty or not guilty, they slay her, after 
examining her with strictest scrutiny, suspected of this very 
heinous sin." To this Father Francis Fitz Herbert and 
Henry Corbyn both depose. Also on October 5th the Pro- 
vincial Court summoned John W ashington, of W estmoreland 
County, to testify in the case of Elizabeth Richardson, who 



13 



was hung on the voyage out "as a witch and a sorcerer." 
The laws of the colony show that in the penalty for crime 
barbarism had many survivals. For sorcery, blasphemy, 
and idolatry, burning was to be the fate of the victim. For 
treason, a woman was to be drawn and burned, and that the 
necessary implements for minor offences should not be 
lacking, an act was passed providing irons for burning male- 
factors. Blanche Oliver, for wilful perjury, is condemned to 
stand in the pillory and lose both her ears, and the entry reads 
" was executed." One can readily understand that the urgent 
necessity for women to have protection, as well for considera- 
tions of Church and State, might have produced what seemed 
to Thomas Copley, the trustee for the possessions of Jesuit 
Fathers, great injustice in the legislation of the first Assembly 
in '34. To this he calls attention in his letter to Lord Balti- 
more : " That it may be prevented, that noe woman here 
vow chastity in the world, unless she marry within seven 
years after land shall fall to hir. She must either dispose 
of hir land or else she shall forfeit it to nexte of kinne. 
Whereas she cannot alienate it, it is gone unless she git a 
husband. To what purpose this ole Law is maid your LoPP e 
perhaps will see better than I." Mrs. Saunders had less grace 
than this, as Charles Calvert writes to Cecilius : " Mrs. S. hath 
been recieved under my roof, where I presume she will 
remain for one yeare and I hope she will thinke fitt to dis- 
pose of herselfe by way of marryadge afore that time bee 
expired." 

In the Assembly Proceedings of March, 1638, is entered: 
"Then was heard an action of Mistress Gertrude James 
against Captain Evelin, & the Court ordered that damage 
demanded should be alledged & drawn up in form next day 
att St Marys Ffort"; and on the 1st of August, 1640, we 
find the entry : " Captain Claiborne, administrator of Richard 
James, Minister, brought into court at James City his inven- 
tory and account. He alledged that the Governor of Mary- 



land had seized on the greater part of the estate and detained 
it from him," and the wife of Rev. Mr. James thereupon 
entered her protest against such action in the seizure of her 
cattle and household store. Some one wickedly comments 
that all the colonial women seemed to do was to go to law 
about a cow or a calf. Such cavillers would do well to 
remember that in all primitive communities wealth consisted 
mainly of cattle, the prehistoric Greeks having used their 
flocks and herds as a medium of exchange, only substituting 
pieces of metal impressed with the image of an ox when they 
began to trade across the seas, and profane history records 
one instance at least in which a classic matron made a remark- 
ably good bargain in connection with a bull-hide. 

On July 30, 1638, we have the first entry of land appor- 
tioned to women in Maryland. In the original document 
among the unpublished Calvert papers, entitled "A note of 
all the warrants for granting land in Maryland," is found : 
" To Mistress Winifred Seaborne 100 acres." Then follows : 
" Mistress Troughton to grant her as much land as any of 
the first adventurers had in respect of the transporting of 
five persons thither and the rent mentioned in the first con- 
ditions." 2d August, same year : " To Mrs. Mary and Mar- 
garet Brent the same with Mistress Troughton." Later on 
the number increases, but it has been a matter of surprise to 
many who are thoroughly conversant with the history of 
Maryland that there were women who shared the early 
responsibilities of the finances of the colony. In 1642 there 
were four female householders numbered among the taxable 
citizens. Elizabeth Beach was assessed in St. Mary's Hun- 
dred, August, 1642, for " expenses of Assembly and drum- 
mer-boy," of 1260 lbs. of tobacco, 30 lbs. Mistress Tran- 
ton assessed for a like amount ; Mrs. Frances White coming 
next, mulcted in 20 lbs. of tobacco ; Mrs. Brent following 
with 5 lbs. A second assessment for John Lewger's expenses 
by him made in the " late expedition against Kent " reveals 



i5 



the fact that Mrs. Tranton and Mrs. White were widows, 
and their levy for this time denotes an increase in their 
estate, the proportion being 100, 50 and 40 lbs. respectively. 
Frequent mention is made of Mistress Traughton, and always 
in a fashion which proves that she knew her rights and meant 
to have them. She was evidently a person of distinction, as 
Lord Baltimore sends greeting to Leonard : " London, 23d 
November, 1642. I pray you commend my kind respects to 
Mistress Traughton and thank her for mee for the letter she 
sent mee this year in answer to another which I sent to her 
last year." Not a very rapid exchange of courtesies, but 
meaning something in those days. Women were now be- 
ginning to make themselves useful in the public service as 
keepers of ordinaries — a most important function at that 
time — and also as proprietors of ferries. The names of Mrs. 
Fenwick and the widow Beasely occur in this connection, Mrs. 
F. receiving " 200 lbs. of tobacco for her trouble in enter- 
taining and setting people over the ferry in a waft." About 
this time the necessity for bridling the tongues of the women 
of the colony seems to have been imminent, since an act pro- 
viding for the erection of a pillory and ducking-stools in 
every county in the province is now passed. Later on an 
exception is made in favor of Baltimore and Talbot Counties, 
not, truth compels your chronicler to state, because the 
feminine element in these regions was less free with its 
speech, but because " they are not sufficiently settled." Some 
glimpses of the terrors to which our colonial wives and 
mothers were subjected may be gained from the orders in 
case of an attack by Indians, for the peaceable acquirement 
of the territory from the aboriginies could not, alas ! prevent 
the consequences of contact with the whites, and the direc- 
tions above-mentioned bear suggestions strongly in contrast 
with the wonderful spectacle of the purchase of the entire 
village of Yeocomico from the tribe then in possession, many 
of them continuing in occupation of their wigwams among 



i6 



the settlers until their corn should have been gathered in, 
the dusky daughters of the soil exchanging housewifely lore 
with the women who came in the "Ark and the Dove " as 
to the preparation of " pone and omini." The bulletin 
posted up on the fort read thus : " Upon the discharge of 
three guns, every householder shall answer it, and every 
housekeeper inhabiting St. Michaels Hundred between St. 
Inegoes Creek and Trinity Creek shall immediately upon 
the knowledge thereof carry his women and children to St. 
Innegoes Ffort, there to abide one month," and the announce- 
ment that the wife and child of Thos. Alcock had been 
" murthered " — it was thought by " sixteen strange Indians " 
who had appeared in the colony — is most touching in its 
agony of appeal. " Since that blood cryeth to Heaven for 
vengeance, yr Petitioner hereby throweth himself, together 
with the blood of his murthered wife and child, att your 
feete, craving justice — which blood he humbly begs of the 
Just Judge of Heaven and Earth, never to remove from your 
souls nor the souls of your childrens children until it be 
satisfied." Signed, Thos. Alcock. 

The first will registered in the Provincial Court Record is 
that of a woman, Mistress Anne Smith ; and while she did 
not have a great deal to dispose of, an extract from one only 
a little later may prove of interest. After the usual quaint 
preliminaries, " I leave to the Chancellor my square diamond 
ring, and to his wife my bracelets. 

To William Bogue my other diamond ring. 

To Mary Bogue my green tabby petticoat and my mourn- 
ing gown — lined with silver lace — also four of my best 
smocks, and four of my best aprons — also the bed and 
bedding and other furniture in my parlour chamber. 

To Susan Herring two cloth petticoats, one smock, one 
apron and also my serge safeguard. 

To John Bogue a lot of gold buttons for doublet, breeches 
and coat. 



i7 



To my negro Fflora my large petticoate and waste coat 
that I wear every day. 

To my daughter Mary, my fur mantel in which she was 
wrapped at her birth — her fathers watch and mourning 
ring and all the rest and residue of my property." 

In a paper like this it is impossible to tax your patience 
with further detail, and our salutation to the stately dames 
who dignified the colony from 1636 to 1685 (the limit of 
this period) must be of the briefest. One of the most beau- 
tiful tributes ever paid is given to a nameless heroine in 
Father White's Narration, in these words : U A noble matron 
has just died (1638), who, coming with the first settlers into 
colony, with more than woman's courage bore all difficulties 
and inconveniences. She was given to much prayer, and 
most anxious for the salvation of her neighbours. A perfect 
example as well in herself as in her domestic concerns. She 
was fond of our Society while living and a benefactor to it 
when dying. Of blessed memory with all for her notable 
example, especially of charity to the sick, as well as of other 
virtues." 

And next among others of such fleeting acquaintance that 
we can only wish it greater, is Madame Elinor Hawley, the 
wife of Jerome Hawley, one of the two commissioners who 
came out with Leonard Calvert, and whose sterling qualities 
challenged even the admiration of that sturdy figure in the 
colonial foreground, Captain Thomas Cornwallis. He writes 
to Lord Baltimore in 1638 in regard to his coadjutor, who is 
accused of an undue bias toward the Virginia Plantation : 
"Well may the discharging of the office hee hath under- 
taken invite him sometimes to Look toward Virginia but 
certainly not with prejudice to Maryland from whens he 
receives the greatest comforts that the world affords him — 
both from sowle and bodie— the one from the church, the 
other from his wife, who by her comportment in these diffi- 
cult affayres of her husband's hath manifested as much virtue 



and discretion as can be expected from the sex she owes 
[oh ! cruel Cornwallis !] whose industrious housewifery hath 
so adorned this desert that should his discouragements force 
him to withdraw himself and hir, it would not a little eclipse 
the Glory of Maryland." 

And our contact with Maryland women of this grouping 
would be imperfect indeed if it omitted the commanding 
figures of Mistresses Mary and Margaret Brent, two most 
important members of the colony. Mrs. Margaret requires 
far more room than we can to-day afford her, and it is pos- 
sible to show how mistaken is the estimate commonly held 
of her conduct on many trying occasions. Kinswomen of 
Lord Baltimore, they enjoyed the firm friendship of the 
family, and as relatives attended the last hours of Leonard 
Calvert, Margaret receiving his nuncupative will and as next 
of kin administering on his estate. Their residence in St. 
v Mary's was an establishment of great elegance. It was 
called St. Thomas, and the house erected on a portion of 
what was known as St. Mary's Forest, containing *jo§ acres, 
a special grant from Lord Baltimore to the sisters. It was 
surrounded by a beautiful grove of ancient oaks, and here 
these distinguished women dispensed a generous hospitality 
to the gentlefolk of their day and generation. That Mar- 
garet Brent should never have married when inferior women 
were so eagerly sought after, involves something of a mystery, 
which may perhaps gain a ray of light from the entry on the 
records of the Provincial Court in 1658, where she testifies 
that " Thomas White, lately deceased, out of the tender love 
and affection he bore the petitioner, intended if he had lived 
to have married her, and did by his last will and testament 
give unto the said petitioner his whole estate which he was 
possessed of in his lifetime." She conducted the colony 
through one of its most desperate straits with a courage, 
ability and patience rarely equalled, and we may leave to a 
more ample occasion the career of this wonderful woman. 



i 9 



The last figure in the group awaiting our recognition is 
Mary Taney, the wife of the Sheriff of Calvert County, who,, 
taking sorely to heart the distressing condition of the Prot- 
estant population, wrote to the Archbishop of Canterbury 
the following letter : 

" May it please your Grace, I am now to repeat, my 
request to your Grace for a church, in the place of Maryland 
where I live. Our want of a minister and the many bless- 
ings our Saviour designed us by them is a misery which I 
and a numerous family and many others in Maryland have 
groaned under. We do not question God's care of us, but 
think your Grace and the Right Rev. your Bishops, the 
proper instrument of so great a blessing to us. We are not, 
I hope, so foreign to your jurisdiction but we may be 
owned your stray flock, however the commission to ' Go and 
baptise all nations ' is large enough. But I am sure we are, 
by a late custom on tobacco, sufficiently acknowledged sub- 
jects of the King of England and therefore, by his protection, 
not only our persons and estates, but of what is far more 
dear to us, our religion. I question not but that your Grace 
is sensible that without a temple it will be impracticable. 
Neither can we expect a minister to hold out, to ride ten 
miles in a morning and before he can dine ten more and from 
house to house in hot weather, will dishearten a minister, if 
not kill him. 

u Your Grace is so sensible of our sad condition and for 
your peace and piety's sake have so great an influence on 
our most Religious and Gracious King that if I had not your 
Grace's promise to depend on, I could not question your 
Grace's intercession. 500 or 6oo£ for a church with some 
small encouragement for a minister will be extremely less 
charge than honor to His Majesty. One church settled 
according to the Church of England, which is the sum of our 
request, will prove a nursery of religion and loyalty through 
the whole Province. But your Grace needs no argument 



20 

[A . . . ■ / 

from me, but only this : it is in your power to give us many 
opportunities to praise God for this and innumerable mer- 
cies, and to importune His goodness to bless His Majesty 
with a long and prosperous reign over us, and long continue 
to your Grace the great blessing of being an instrument of 
good to his Church and now that I may be no more trouble- 
some I humbly entreat your pardon to the well meant zeal 
of your Grace's most obedient Servant, 

Mary Taney." 

There was also a petition " To the Most Rev the Arch 
Bishop and the rest of the Bishops the humble petition of 
Mary Taney on behalf of herself and others, his Majestys 
Subjects, Inhabitants of the Province of Maryland." 

These produced an appropriation from the King's private 
purse for the fulfilment of the wish of this courageous 
woman, and the Rev. Paul Bertrand's passage was paid to 
Maryland from the Secret Service Fund. There exists a 
report from this clergyman, written in French, addressed to 
the Bishop of London, of which, however, only the title is 
given in the Stevens Catalogue of MSS. in the Maryland , 
Historical Society ; and with these simple chronicles of the 
lovely housewife, Elinor Hawley, the brave stateswoman, 
Margaret Brent, and the devoutly missionary-spirited Mary 
Taney, we take our leave for the present of the women in the 
colony of Maryland. 



! 



I 



